Editors' Picks: YA Novels We'd Read Again

By Rebecca Adler Warren

'Anne of Green Gables' by L.M. Montgomery

"But we asked for a boy," Marilla Cuthbert says when mischievous, red-headed Anne, an orphan, arrives in Avonlea in Montgomery's classic tale about an impulsive girl who proves she's much smarter than she appears. (amazon.com)

'A Wrinkle In Time' by

Meg's father has been experimenting with time travel when he disappears in L'Engle's iconic, wonderfully imaginative sci-fi story. Meg, her brother Charles and their friend Calvin set off on a dangerous outerspace adventure to track him down. (amazon.com)

'Bridge to Terabithia' by Katherine Paterson

Terabithia, a magical kingdom in the woods where Jess and Leslie reign as king and queen, is powered by imagination--until tragedy strikes in this heart-breaking, beautiful tale about the depths of grief and the bonds of friendship. (amazon.com)

'The Catcher in the Rye' by J.D. Salinger

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them," says Holden Caufield at the start of this once-banned book. (amazon.com)

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

'The Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins

Collins's thought-provoking young adult novel turned pop culture phenom comments on the perils of reality TV. In what was once North America, one boy and one girl are forced to appear on television in an annual fight to the death, the bizarre terms of a treaty that ended a civil war. (amazon.com)

'Island of the Blue Dolphins' by Scott O'Dell

'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' by C.S. Lewis

'Opening the wardrobe door, she saw several long fur coats hanging up, and immediately got in among them. As she went further in, she noticed to her surprise that the soft furs began to feel rough and prickly, just like the branches of trees." And so begins Lewis's beloved story about four children who discover a magical land trapped in an eternal winter. (amazon.com)

'The Long Winter' by Laura Ingalls Wilder

'Lord of the Flies' by William Goldring

"Maybe there is a beast….maybe it’s only us." Goldring’s must-read high school staple, set on a deserted island, follows the disastrous undoing of a group of British schoolboys who attempt to govern themselves. (amazon.com)

'The Secret Garden' by Fraces Hodgson Burnett

When orphaned Mary Lennox arrives at her uncle's sprawling estate, she's spoiled, sickly and bored—until she discovers the doorway to an overgrown garden and begins to restore it to its original beauty. (amazon.com)